[Kurzgesagt] Genetic Engineering Will Change Everything Forever - General

Really hope designing babies won't be a thing, japan will start producing anime people and everything else will look like it's straight from deviantart.

[QUOTE=ironman17;50864470]It probably could, if you were able to alter enough cells in the right places, though it'd probably still take a LONG time for such a fundamental transformation (internal and external) to be completed. And even then it'd probably still require a bit of the old "nip-and-tuck" to facilitate a perfect conversion. Unless of course we take inspiration from caterpillars and butterflies in regards to hardcore physiological transformation. You see, when the caterpillar cocoons itself and begins its fundamental transformation, it actually liquefies most of its body and proceeds to rearrange itself into a different form, namely turning from a leaf-munching little grub into a winged beauty of the insect world. Perhaps one day, there would be such technology that would enable someone to hibernate inside a specialized pod, break down most of their body into a similar primordial gloop, and transform into an entirely different body based on their altered genetic code. It'd be a lot cleaner and a lot more contained than what happened to Seth Brundle.[/QUOTE] ahhh shit i want this to happen. [editline]11th August 2016[/editline] but it raises questions that im sure would be answered during the actual development of a technology like that. like will you be the same person when you come out on the other side, is your consciousness the same consciousness or just a copy of your consciousness? youd be able to answer that by determining if the brain is 'liquified' or it remains solid and still functions during the process

I can imagine this would end up like in the movie "In Time": [url]http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1637688/[/url] You stop aging at 25, everybody is healthy and young and since unhealthy live choices (like eating fast food all day) or diseases won't kill you anymore, you're modified to die when your time runs out, which is the new currency.

The video makes this point clear. It's going to happen regardless of what limits you think their should be. Case in point (surprised the video didn't bring this up): There was a call worldwide to cease any work done or planned for the use of CRISPR on human embyros until the ethics had been worked out. Within that week, the Chinese group mentioned in the video published their attempts at doing so. In fairness, that paper clearly outlined the limitations of the system as it was then and said that it wasn't ready (too many mistakes). They were also working with non-viable embyros; 0% possibility of them becoming people. Nonetheless, the group and the journal that published got criticised. However, the fact that this group published implied that there were many more groups working on this that we just don't know about. The door has opened and cannot be shut.

I feel this is relevant to some of the anti-aging, mind-uploading discussions: [video=youtube;IFe9wiDfb0E]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFe9wiDfb0E[/video]

[QUOTE=Solomon;50865599]ahhh shit i want this to happen. [editline]11th August 2016[/editline] but it raises questions that im sure would be answered during the actual development of a technology like that. like will you be the same person when you come out on the other side, is your consciousness the same consciousness or just a copy of your consciousness? youd be able to answer that by determining if the brain is 'liquified' or it remains solid and still functions during the process[/QUOTE] If the brain stays intact, yes I'm sure you would still have the same SoC before you liquidated most of your bodily assets. It's not like taking a brain scan and etching it onto microchip. Besides, research suggests that butterflies retain memories from when they were caterpillars, so presumably their brains remain at least somewhat intact during their metamorphosis. Though what I want to know is how the caterpillars break themselves down into the primordial chicken soup in the first place, like what mad biological processes causes them to melt like that. Imagine a sentient species that went through such a process naturally, like some sort of sapient lepidopteran or hyper-intelligent hymenopteran. The teenage years of such a species would literally involve a child cocooning themselves and only coming out of their shell (quite literally in this case) when their body has transformed into the six-legged imago that is their species' adult form. Though it's anyone's guess whether it'd be traditional for them to metamorphose in their bedroom, or whether the cocooned child would be moved to a hospital to be taken care of by midwives until their "second hatching". ...now there's something to write about.

The [I]only[/I] problem I have against anti-aging is our finite capacity for memory and information. Unless we develop super computers with infinite storage capacity, somehow, and replace my brain with one, then I'm cool with whatever.

[QUOTE=Cufflux;50864787]Genetic engineering should honestly only be used for fixing genetic diseases and altering genes which affect resistance levels to transmitted ones. Living in a world where you have to accept others are better than you- that it's natural, and that nobody can change it- in intelligence, physique, etc... is too humbling to ever give up. Yes I want wider shoulders, a faster metabolism, quicker reflexes, a more intelligent mind... that meaning will be lost where I won't have to work to get smarter or fitter. On another note, intelligence won't make you happier; eating whatever you want will put a dent in your needed self-control; getting buff naturally will eliminate the discipline learned from the sweat and strain needed to get there. Some things you shouldn't get for free.[/QUOTE] Legitimately risking entering a sub-par Gundam-verse isn't something I particularly look forward too. But the applications of genetic engineering are astronomical. Being able to fix the hereditary bullshit we've accumulated would be lovely, being able to stop the wonky genes that fucked my eyes up from birth would be awesome. But designer babies can fuck right off, that's uncharted territory that we really need to be careful of even approaching. Engineering them to have no immune system failures, higher resistance to x and y, etc. makes sense. But picking and choosing traits is where things become murky. I can't see ethics committees approving anything of the sort for the general population for an incredible amount of time. Though there are uses of designer babies that could help us with space exploration as the video mentioned. Being able to engineer a person who can deal with a lack of gravity without fucking their bone density to hell would be really useful until we start having colonies with some form of gravity out there.

Looks like we'll have two possible futures. One where genetic engineering is used to eradicate disease, or a different future where filthy puritans sterilize and/or execute those with "bad" genes, because modification is impure. I mean...that could work too. If you think about it the world could be done with food allergies for the rest of eternity if we all just covered our eyes for a year. Of course, that's insane. But...I mean, it could conceivably work.

[QUOTE=haloguy234;50868577]Looks like we'll have two possible futures. One where genetic engineering is used to eradicate disease, or a different future where filthy puritans sterilize and/or execute those with "bad" genes, because modification is impure. I mean...that could work too. If you think about it the world could be done with food allergies for the rest of eternity if we all just covered our eyes for a year. Of course, that's insane. But...I mean, it could conceivably work.[/QUOTE] A genocide is never a good thing.

[QUOTE=PredGD;50860072]I'm not really sure what to feel of genetic engineering. I'd say I'm supportive of it, but the idea behind designer babies horrifies me. Even if the entire gene pool and every single human would have a perfect body with the perfect genes, it's still something I'm not sure what to feel of. Contrasts are going to disappear. I imagine it'd be very easy to take stuff for granted and further just reinforce our lazy lifestyles. What would the point be in going to the gym when everyones ripped anyway because of our genes? What's the point of eating healthy when our bodies are engineered into having burgers just as healthy? Why go to school when our concentration and memory is so good that we only need to read about a topic once and it sticks? Designer babies in general, if taken far enough, sounds like a thing that'll completely remove any sense of achievement or progression.[/QUOTE] Your diet and activity level would still have an influence on you, sure it may be harder to lose muscle and easier to gain it and lose fat, but if you're a lazy shit slamming fast food every day, you'll get fat.

[QUOTE=GlebGuy;50866952]The [I]only[/I] problem I have against anti-aging is our finite capacity for memory and information. Unless we develop super computers with infinite storage capacity, somehow, and replace my brain with one, then I'm cool with whatever.[/QUOTE] We'll probably hit a point where we'll need to start backing things up and cleaning out some of the more "inconsequential" memories. Either that, or have grey matter expansion drives installed to increase our capacity for memories.

[QUOTE=Cufflux;50864787]Genetic engineering should honestly only be used for fixing genetic diseases and altering genes which affect resistance levels to transmitted ones. Living in a world where you have to accept others are better than you- that it's natural, and that nobody can change it- in intelligence, physique, etc... is too humbling to ever give up. Yes I want wider shoulders, a faster metabolism, quicker reflexes, a more intelligent mind... that meaning will be lost where I won't have to work to get smarter or fitter. On another note, intelligence won't make you happier; eating whatever you want will put a dent in your needed self-control; getting buff naturally will eliminate the discipline learned from the sweat and strain needed to get there. Some things you shouldn't get for free.[/QUOTE] You still have to work to get stronger/faster, people on steroids/GH still have to work very hard to improve, it simply accelerates the process. Everyone being more intelligent overall is a bad thing how? Improved reflexes is a bad thing too? Many people have genetic limits and some peoples limits are probably very poor.

[QUOTE=SpaceGhost;50871255]You still have to work to get stronger/faster, people on steroids/GH still have to work very hard to improve, it simply accelerates the process. Everyone being more intelligent overall is a bad thing how? Improved reflexes is a bad thing too? Many people have genetic limits and some peoples limits are probably very poor.[/QUOTE] It's bad when it creates a classism and a serious divide between people. The haves and the have nots are a serious societal problem when it comes to income inequality let alone genetic manipulation inequalities.

[QUOTE=HumanAbyss;50871328]It's bad when it creates a classism and a serious divide between people. The haves and the have nots are a serious societal problem when it comes to income inequality let alone genetic manipulation inequalities.[/QUOTE] It'll be a long time before genetically engineered people are far different than we are now, curing diseases is one of the most important aspects, its not like it'll turn people into the hulk or 1000x more intelligent than hawking.

[QUOTE=Mobon1;50860349]Not to mention your perception of time would be fucked by the time you're 100 anyhow. [url]http://www.maximiliankiener.com/digitalprojects/time/[/url][/QUOTE] See I hear this alot but, no ones ever able to prove what exactly causes it, or if it is even a thing at all, if its a psychological issue then fixing that shouldn't be too hard with ~future~ stuff and if its physical, well thats even easier then. I kind of find it hard to believe myself, over the past 10 years of my life if anything, I feel like time is slowing down for me. A day at university feels like an extremely long time while when I was at high school the years just flew by like it was nothing.

[QUOTE=archival;50871836]See I hear this alot but, no ones ever able to prove what exactly causes it, or if it is even a thing at all, if its a psychological issue then fixing that shouldn't be too hard with ~future~ stuff and if its physical, well thats even easier then. I kind of find it hard to believe myself, over the past 10 years of my life if anything, I feel like time is slowing down for me. A day at university feels like an extremely long time while when I was at high school the years just flew by like it was nothing.[/QUOTE] I think time passing quickly is more to do with repetition. When you do the same thing over and over again you remember less of it because your brain considers it unnecessary information, causing you to think that time has passed more quickly. The more you repeat something, the more quickly time passes but if you change the activity your brain has to once again focus harder and make new memories. Perhaps this is why time moves more quickly when you are enjoying yourself as well. When you enjoy yourself or are comfortable, your brain shuts down its memory construction to focus on the enjoyment or it shuts down because there is no risk or danger in a comfortable situation, meaning you don't need to focus and be mindful of your surroundings. This is why keeping your brain 'active'- as in playing chess, dancing or learning an instrument-helps to prevent alzheimer's disease and other memory related disorders. It forces your brain to keeping making and retaining memories to deal with complex and constantly changing activities.

Thread music [media]http://youtu.be/M33oxfw7aS0[/media] Cause there is no gene for will

[QUOTE=noh_mercy;50865253]but you can get hacked without ever realizing it. Imagine being programmed into thinking that everything you do is of your own choice while being a puppet for someone else, like robocop[/QUOTE] Well, that really depends on the level of cyberization. Someone with some implants/minor enhancements like synthetic limbs wouldn't be necessarily "hackable" in that sense, nor would someone with a full-body prosthetic (i.e., only their brain and some other original tissues left inside a synthetic body). However, if someone had the tech and willpower to do something like mind uploading... [I]maybe[/I]. It really depends on the exact specs of the tech involved at the end of the day.

[QUOTE=noh_mercy;50865253]but you can get hacked without ever realizing it. Imagine being programmed into thinking that everything you do is of your own choice while being a puppet for someone else, like robocop[/QUOTE] Couldn't that be solved by having the body just be offline? No outside connections to the body, and you could add several fail-safes to the whole system incase you wanted to be online (so idunno, you can listen to future spotify directly through your brain). Having it offline though restricts the ability for someone to remotely hack an android. I'd be more worried about how your supposed to get vitamins to your brain without needing some shit like injections every night to keep your brain nourished, though thats whats most likely gonna happen (If androids do become a thing, I can see the rise of sleep-pods that, while you sleep, inject the nutrition the brain needs for the next day through a port, and charge your batteries and shit at the same time) unless we develop some sort of artificial digestion system.

If this can address neurological conditions such as Alzheimer's and Schizophrenia then this sounds lovely because my greatest fears are disorders that cause your brain to degenerate. Designer children will become a weapon and that shouldn't be allowed. Imagine the Kim Jong dynasty a couple centuries from now? They would become ten-foot deities with sun-kissed skin and machine guns for nipples.

[QUOTE=Deals;50874743]Imagine the Kim Jong dynasty a couple centuries from now? They would become ten-foot deities with sun-kissed skin and machine guns for nipples.[/QUOTE] This is all assuming that South Korea doesn't become an island.

[QUOTE=karimatrix;50872141]Thread music [media]http://youtu.be/M33oxfw7aS0[/media] Cause there is no gene for will[/QUOTE] Good film We had our English class right an essay on it years ago

Will we group into clans of furries and ponyboys and hitlerites, or will we all live different together, or will we all be clones?

[QUOTE=Enjoirules;50879067]Will we group into clans of furries and ponyboys and hitlerites, or will we all live different together, or will we all be clones?[/QUOTE] Likely the second option out of the 3 you mentioned, provided that the limitations of the technology expand very quickly. More than likely it'll be a mix of people using the CRISPR-derived treatments and gene therapies to initially improve their quality-of-life alongside possibly augmenting themselves via more "traditional" technology, like implants, robotic enhancements (limbs, eyes, etc.), and perhaps things like smart clothing/IoT devices that might work alongside or replace conventional smartphones (I personally think the former is more likely- people love their phones).

[QUOTE=Toro;50874584]Couldn't that be solved by having the body just be offline? No outside connections to the body, and you could add several fail-safes to the whole system incase you wanted to be online (so idunno, you can listen to future spotify directly through your brain). Having it offline though restricts the ability for someone to remotely hack an android. I'd be more worried about how your supposed to get vitamins to your brain without needing some shit like injections every night to keep your brain nourished, though thats whats most likely gonna happen (If androids do become a thing, I can see the rise of sleep-pods that, while you sleep, inject the nutrition the brain needs for the next day through a port, and charge your batteries and shit at the same time) unless we develop some sort of artificial digestion system.[/QUOTE] If you ever got abducted by someone they could open you up and put you back together, their way. so you could still worry about that as an android. A more realistic problem would be that the company that built you could consider you to be their property in some way. And they may be able to restrict you from doing things from a legal standpoint. Look at deus ex or robocop for hypothetical problems with being an android /cyborg

[QUOTE=HumanAbyss;50871328]It's bad when it creates a classism and a serious divide between people. The haves and the have nots are a serious societal problem when it comes to income inequality let alone genetic manipulation inequalities.[/QUOTE] you'd think the more perfect a human being they are designed to be, they'd have a greater sense of empathy to boot

[QUOTE=noh_mercy;50889862]If you ever got abducted by someone they could open you up and put you back together, their way. so you could still worry about that as an android. A more realistic problem would be that the company that built you could consider you to be their property in some way. And they may be able to restrict you from doing things from a legal standpoint. Look at deus ex or robocop for hypothetical problems with being an android /cyborg[/QUOTE] Its not like anybody off the street would be able to abduct, take apart, and put back together an android, considering how complex and how densely packed they'd probably be, you'd have to have quite a bit of training to take one apart without accidentally turning off a system and killing the brain via oxygen starvation or other reasons. Plus, I can see being an android only being available to the super rich, who will probably make several deals with the company (If they arent the CEO of that company themselves) that will rebuild them promising eachother that the company isn't liable for any shit that he/she does with the suit etc. Like i believe someone earlier in this thread said, why would you become an android if you dont have the money to actually experience all life has to offer, otherwise your just a guy whos gonna be working as a customer support rep / janitor / cashier for thousands of years.

[QUOTE=Toro;50893085]Its not like anybody off the street would be able to abduct, take apart, and put back together an android, considering how complex and how densely packed they'd probably be, you'd have to have quite a bit of training to take one apart without accidentally turning off a system and killing the brain via oxygen starvation or other reasons. Plus, I can see being an android only being available to the super rich, who will probably make several deals with the company (If they arent the CEO of that company themselves) that will rebuild them promising eachother that the company isn't liable for any shit that he/she does with the suit etc. Like i believe someone earlier in this thread said, why would you become an android if you dont have the money to actually experience all life has to offer, otherwise your just a guy whos gonna be working as a customer support rep / janitor / cashier for thousands of years.[/QUOTE] in the hypothetical scenarios where people are androids im sure manual labor would've been rendered obsolete by then

[QUOTE=Judas;50893350]in the hypothetical scenarios where people are androids im sure manual labor would've been rendered obsolete by then[/QUOTE] While I'm sure the jobs I listed will be obsolete by then, therre are still jobs that I think humans are and will always be more suited for than robots, such as programmimg, engineering, sciences, and all the other innovation based fields. I have a lot of reason for this, though im on mobile and it's a pain in the ass to write huge paragraphs on mobile, so ill get back to you in the morning on my reasoning.